If TPM was the first Star Wars movie made

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-11-06 12:08am

If TPM was the first Star Wars movie made, do you think the Star Wars franchise would ever exist or exist long enough to A New Hope to be made?

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-11-06 01:12am

Not if it came out when it did. By the time TPM came out special effects were expected not something that was a bonus. Star Wars struck a chord with 1970's America. The timing could not have been better, America found a film that presented a simple story of good vs evil. TPM came out at a time when Americans were not craving any of those things. We were fast into the go-go 90's everyone wanting to make $$$.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-11-06 01:15am

Nope. SW would have died after one movie.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-11-06 03:04am

TPM with 70's era stuff might be ok.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-06 04:27am

The plot just isn't capable of striking a chord.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-06 10:24am

Plot?

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2003-11-07 11:46am

If the TPM with 1999 fx had come out in 1977, Georg Lucas would problably be even richer, It would still had the best special effects, Jedis, Siths, and Light Sabers. GL would also own the computer industry if he managed to create that CGI in 1977.

With 1977 tech it would sill do very good, maybe as good as ANH, sill the best special effects around, a space battle, and there's Jedis, Siths and LS, the fights would be a lot cooler than those of ANH since they are not one old man versus a clipple. Hell, Maul vs. Obi Wan and Qui Gon alone would have made Lucas a millionaire back then, and they don't use any spacial effect that does not have an 1977 equivalent.

It would be a little confussing though, since it asumes we already know something about the starwars universe.

dworkin · Post by **dworkin** » 2003-11-08 06:59am

Anakin would be cast at the age he was supposed to be, eighteen or so.
Palpatine would of been made more sinister so we all knew that he was the bad guy.
The droid army would of been an army of aliens and the Gungans a lot tougher because they would actually have to defeat them.

And I would of still been watching it in theatres in the early '80s.

Would of been a bugger waiting till 1998 to see ANH.
I like this time-line better.

THEHOOLIGANJEDI · Post by **THEHOOLIGANJEDI** » 2003-11-08 04:30pm

You would have to keep the basic plot line but alter it to be more enigmatic and not hinting that Anakin is going to fall to the darkside, like how the PT is now. GL made the PT to show what happened to Vader with the knowledge we have from the OT which is why they weren't filmed in chronilogical order. If they were then GL would have written the PT differently.

Cryllin · Post by **Cryllin** » 2003-11-08 11:56pm

Movies form that generation tended to have more plot then special effects, because they never had the resources for special effects that we now have today. So its possible that the SW franchise would have made it.. But the movie likely would not resemble 1/10th of that rubbish that they tried to pass as a movie, due to reworking the script to the point where it would have had characters working off of each other. Instead of characters relying on special effects to make up for there shabby acting … but this is just my two cents, which is not worth much.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-11-09 04:40am

I lived in that generation, and we were starving for a movie like Star Wars. Don't listen to the bullshit the critics say about that era; a blockbuster in that era was "Kramer vs Kramer". Fucking miserable, depressing shit wherever you looked. That's why audiences went out in droves to see things like Saturday Night Fever, Jaws, and yes, Star Wars. TPM would have made a shitload of money, particularly since a lot of the self-indulgent references to the original trilogy wouldn't have been in there.

George Lucas' biggest problem with the prequels is forcing himself to write material that will tie into the original series and not totally annihilate continuity. Freed of that constraint, I'm sure that TPM would have been more streamlined. But even if it wasn't, it still would have made a godawful shitload of money.

You must also remember the entire atmosphere of society. Rampant uber-feminism was at its peak. Alan Alda was considered the penultimate symbol of the properly sensitive male. Jimmy Carter was in office, American cars were considered junk, Chrysler was teetering on bankruptcy, nuclear war seemed imminent, and malaise was the national sentiment.

Don't sell me bullshit about the "golden era of personal filmmaking" that you read about from movie critics. Too many of the films made in that era merely reflected the malaise and self-doubt that plagued Americans of the time. I was there, and I remember. America was ready for a film that evoked memories of Flash Gordon. America was ready for something that did not hammer at you with important social messages and properly depressing visions of the future. America was ready for Star Wars, and a president like Ronald Reagan. And while TPM was not the film that ANH was, it still would have made a gigantic shitload of money.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-11-09 08:11am

Also, what would Reagan have named the Star Wars project?

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-11-09 03:00pm

Okay okay.. let me rephrase that question.. if TPM was the first Star Wars movie made TODAY

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-11-09 03:03pm

Well if you mean today as in now not 1977,then it would be the only Star Wars movie ever made.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-11-09 03:04pm

Trytostaydead wrote:Okay okay.. let me rephrase that question.. if TPM was the first Star Wars movie made TODAY

Impossible. A New Hope is what made films nowadays what they are today.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-11-09 03:15pm

Gandalf wrote:Also, what would Reagan have named the Star Wars project?

The Phantom Menace obviously.

Has an omnious ring to it.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-11-09 05:08pm

From another point of view Kung Fu movies where very underground at the time ANH was released. The duel scenes in TPM alone guarantee that i'd go down a storm. When you look at it ANH itselv was a bit dodgy in terms of plot and the actual acting of the movie. TPM would have done very well in 1977 even a movie as bad as TMP would do well for the fact that there was no competition.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-09 11:08pm

Trytostaydead wrote:Okay okay.. let me rephrase that question.. if TPM was the first Star Wars movie made TODAY

Then nobody would give a damn, because the characters are poorly written and rely on the older films to keep people interested.

Read: Anakin, Obi Wan. Ok maybe Yoda would be ok but he's basically the same guy in both, but nobody will care about a whiny kid who becomes evil if nobody knew about cool Mr. Vader.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-11-10 08:26am

...Then the Yoda/dooku fight either A. would not have been shown or B. would have been very. very. slow.

a sad thing it would be to not see that.